Today we released a teaser for the last installment of the Architecture and the Unspeakable video series. The full video is set to premiere in Chicago on April 8th as part of the MAS CONTEXT Spring talks for 2014. See this for more details. View full entry »

National and local foundations have pledged more than $330 million to a fund to protect city-owned art at the Detroit Institute of Arts from being auctioned off, mediators in Detroit’s bankruptcy announced Monday.

A statement from Chief U.S. District Court Judge Gerald Rosen’s team of mediators called the financial commitments “an extraordinary and unprecedented effort” to preserve the art collection and raise money for Detroit’s underfunded pension funds.
— detroitnews.com

Though Detroit has recently been looking like it was hit by a convoy of mile-wide firenados, there remain signs of architectural grandeur illustrating why it was once known as the Paris of the Midwest. Perhaps nowhere is this faded beauty more palpable than in the large-format photography of Philip Jarmain, a Vancouver native who's spent three years shooting Detroit's sublime edifices, sometimes just months before they were wiped out by bulldozers.
— theatlanticcities.com

Related: Can Detroit's Architectural Past Inspire It to Claw Back to Greatness? Petition to block the demolition of the State Savings Bank in Detroit Detroit’s Venal Art Sale No Fix for Urban Nightmare View full entry »

In the latest edition of the Working out of the Box series Archinect interviewed Brooklyn-based designer & artist Doug Johnston. His current profession is creating "objects by stitching rope together" and he explains "I guess sometime early on, I realized that my design work wouldn't be... View full entry »

Despite filing for bankruptcy, Detroit is still on track to get a $450 million hockey arena - partially funded with public money. Host Michel Martin speaks with sportswriter Dave Zirin, who calls the move 'shameless,' and David Muller, a business reporter for the MLive Media Group in Michigan.
— npr.org

[Correction: Official images of the proposed new arena do not exist yet. The 'Old Red Barn' rendering above is an unofficial proposal via the New Olympia Stadium blog.] View full entry »

According to Preservation Detroit, "The City of Detroit Historic District Commission has received a petition to demolish the State Savings Bank. The petition is subject to a public hearing, which is scheduled for the next Historic District Commission meeting on Wednesday, August 14."
— change.org

Samantha Farr, an Urban Planning Graduate Student at University of Michigan, has started a petition to block the plans by Andreas Apostolopoulos, CEO of Triple Properties, to demolish the historic Beaux-Arts-Style State Savings Bank in Detroit, to make room for a parking structure. Triple... View full entry »

When companies go bankrupt, the medicine can be harsh for staff members and the local tax base, yet the effects are temporary. A bankrupt city can’t fire citizens who pay taxes but already receive worse than subsistence services like one-hour police response times.

Large cities don’t disappear or die, they just waste into chronic basket cases, like Camden, New Jersey; Gary, Indiana; and East St. Louis, Illinois.
— bloomberg.com

"Thanks to Data Driven Detroit, there is now an interactive map of the city's demo activity, covering both planned demolitions and those that have taken place since 2010."
— Curbed: Detroit

The schadenfreude of Detroit is now interactive! Come one and all to experience the most fascinating cartographic advancement since the invention of Google street view. It is not altogether the best month for Detroit with the recent claim of bankruptcy now making its way through the courts... View full entry »

Photos from Detroit taken the summer of 2013. They include shots from Hamtramk, the Fisher Body Plant, the Thornapple Slaughterhouse, Michigan Central Station, the Brewster-Douglass housing projects, the Packard Auto Plant, the Lee Plaza Hotel, Saint Agnes church, Corktown, Eastern Market, and various other scenic spots throughout the downtown area.
— johnszot.com

Following up from yesterday's post, Can Detroit's Architectural Past Inspire It to Claw Back to Greatness?, today we share some photos by John Szot. View full entry »

Bruce Katz, vice president of the Brookings Institution, says that many American cities show promising signs of renewal. He's written a book with Brookings Fellow Jennifer Bradley called The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities and Metros Are Fixing Our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy. The book argues that metro areas — or, cities and suburbs together — are powerful economic engines with considerable political influence...
— npr.org

It often happens that news events create a new context for existing photo projects, and such is the case with Philip Jarmain’s photos of Detroit in light of the city’s recent filing for bankruptcy. Jarmain’s series American Beauty documents architecture from a pre-Depression era Detroit — a time when the city was on the rise. They now stand in contrast to its current rock-bottom economic straits.
— wired.com

Last week, we published the winning projects of the international design competition Redesigning Detroit: A New Vision for an Iconic Site. Organized by the Opportunity Detroit campaign, the competition sought after ideas for a potential signature project on the former Hudson’s Department Store site in downtown Detroit.

The international design competition Redesigning Detroit: A New Vision for an Iconic Site has announced its winners today. Hosted by the Opportunity Detroit campaign, the competition solicited ideas for a potential signature project on the former Hudson’s Department Store site in downtown Detroit.
— bustler.net

Previously on Archinect: A Motor City Missionary Related: The Grand Opening - Honorable Mention Entry, Redesigning Detroit: A New Vision for an Iconic Site View full entry »